Three Questions of English - Essay Example

Language issues in public discourse Name Institution affiliation Due date  Language undergoes development, changes, evolution. Besides, it is always adapting to the needs of people. In this essay, I will discuss three language issues that have been on public discussion forums. These issues are Americanization of the English language, the impact of the modern technology on language . As language evolves words lose their meaning and in some cases the words themselves become obsolete. However, just as words become outdated or change, more new words come into existence. Of much particular concern is the American culture influence on pronunciation and spelling of the English language in the Australian culture. This issue has been in existence since the 1960s. During this period, Pam Peters, Associate Professor of Linguistics, pointed out this whole matter and stated that: “Younger respondents were always more regular users of the American options, and this, by sociolinguistic principle, suggests the way in the future.” The effect is already there in a good number of Americanisms which have been absorbed over the last six decades. Going from the currently available data it is quite right to say that we Australian English is full of the “American options”. Australians spend more on movies than the performance arts. However, most of these movies are from America, and only little Australian music played on the radio. Also, the Americanization of slang generations Y and Z are not the first to be affected by the American slang through movies, music and television. When the Boomers were young, they used words like man, cool and peace that were so popular in the USA by then. In the 1960s, the X generation in Australia used some American words like dude, totally and excellent. In the current generation, some of the words used include homie, bling etc. the words used by Boomers in those years were largely due to influence of hippie and mod subculture. Today, the influence is from the African American rap and hip hop. However, while it is true that the American culture has an impact on young people’s language usage, there still exist a good number of American words that have not been adopted yet. For example, eat biscuits and not cookies; footpaths and not sidewalks; autumn not fall etc. The young people, Australians especially, do this despite the saturation of the American entertainment in homes. This is a clear indication that the young Australians are cautious on the words they come across in American movies and music. In most cases, they only take the youth slang rather than all the words. In the same way, much of American slang adopted by Australian youth is changed or adapted to the Aussie context. Further, the pronunciation of various common words has been affected by American culture. For example, the word “schedule” is not pronounced as “shedule”, but as “skedule”, and “zee” instead of zed, attitude is marked as "attitood" instead of "attitchewd". Besides, the young people are also taking up words such as “like” and “whatever”, as people in parts of North America do. Quite alarming is the issue of children’s electronic educational toys from American companies that teach children ABCs and how to count in an American accent. The fact that it is actual instruction on pronunciation and not just overhearing American voices on television increases its impact. The influence of the USA seems to be coming from every corner, and from an early age. The spelling aspect has also been Americanized. Computers are using American spelling. The most commonly used software applications are made by Microsoft whose origin is America. By default they enhance the use of American English, especially through the installed spelling checks. The computers are set by default to correct to American spelling. For example, colour changes to “color”, and traveller changes to “traveler”. The American slang cuts off the first part of a word while Australian slang curtails the end of a word. The English language is always developing. The English that was being spoken during the old days is entirely different from the current one that is being used in Australia today. Languages are increasingly evolving, and the Australian language has not been exceptional in this. In the past decade, our language substantially developed or changed. Most of this change has been brought about by the use of technology. For example, the word Google has ended up becoming a universally accepted verb and was officially incorporated into the Oxford English Dictionary in 2006. Also, some words acquired a new meaning due to technology. For example, the word “wireless” was used to refer to the radio some years back. However, with the introduction of technology the same word now is used to refer to something different. Looking at another example the word tweet was used to mean something that birds do. In the present language, it has another meaning connected to the social network Twitter.  According to Anon (2007),”social media is solely responsible for most of the new words that we have today. For example, the word "friend" is nowadays used as a verb, as in "she friended me on Facebook". The word "check-in" is now not only used in hotels and airports; it is being used when an individual report on a social site through social network”. in addition, just like words, the meaning of some symbols has also changed with time. For example, the # symbol was initially understood as a music symbol all over the world. It was known as the denoting sharp tone. However, today it’s also referred to as a hashtag on Twitter hence it has gained an entirely different meaning. In addition, technology has also affected in the way we write. The change has been caused by the use of mobile whereby people have adopted texting as a way of communicating. For example, writing a message in capital letters implies that you are shouting. On the other hand, writing in small letters is acceptable. Another interesting thing that has been brought about text language is the increased use of abbreviations, some missing vowels and acronyms. For example, abbreviations such as LOL (laughing out loud), OMG (oh my God) and gr8t (great) are commonly used today. The primary driving force towards this is the mobile phones screen sizes and low character limits. This calls for the user to abbreviate for the message to fit. However, regardless of the influence and impact, all is not lost. There still exists ancient Australian English language that is used alongside the acquired language. According to, “the informal language of technology has simply merged with our traditional language – it has just happened at great speed.” Political correctness (PC) is another language issue that has emerged. According to Luckhurst (2004), “the term is used to describe language, ideas, policies, or behavior that seeks to eliminate or reduce offence to a race, gender, culture, the disabled, and other identity groups.” At the same time, the word “politically incorrect language” refers to that language or idea that is capable of causing offence in one way or the other. According to Luckhurst, “defenders of politically correct language claim that it is a civilizing influence on society, whichtries to encourage the use of words that do not have a negative aspect and thereby giving respect to individuals who are victims of negative stereotypes. In this regard, the primary reason for using politically correct language is to prevent bullying and offensive behavior and to do away with words that carry nasty undertones.” The Political Correctness movement’s aim is to use language to enable and encourage social progress. However, according to those who support the movement, it has suffered from a lot of ridicule, and has also been misunderstood by many people. The PC movement is founded upon a theoretical foundation that asserts that: “language forms categories for thought, and words can lead to the development of opportunities or boundaries.” The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis is a commonly embraced part of this theory.  According to Luckhurst (2004), "every language is a construct that tries to show an abstract meaning. The language we use not only affects the messages we deliver, but also the way we think and behave". The problem comes in when the linguistic constructs being used change our way of thinking in a way that is not good.  These negative influences from language are what are referred to as politically incorrect. This kind of language is made up of three categories. The first one is referred to as subtle. Subtle includes words like policeman and chairman. These terms refer to all people as the man regardless of whether it is a female or male. These kinds of words subtly affect our way of thinking.  The words tend to insinuate that these are roles meant for men only.  Such kind of language can prevent women from being able to contest for these positions.   They show that masculinity is the superior gender. The second category is referred to as the offensive category. It includes words such as gay or retarded to refer to something that is not desirable; words like  retarded to apply to human beings.  The first set of words implies how these descriptions connect certain types of people to something bad by using words that refer to them as insults for other undesirable factors. Also, the second set of words is also offensive. This is because of the pejorative aspects that are being brought about by these slurs.  There are better ways of referring to people that do not have to make them feel demeaned. The last category is the blatant group. In this category, the n-word refers to the black people while the c or b-word to refers to women. These words are so much offensive and they show a lot of disdain.  According to Nungak (2005), “they objectify and belittle entire groups of people based on one trait”. According to Nungak, “the Political Correctness movement is all over the world, and it includes many more elements than just the ones I have explained in this paper. However, the ones I have explained are the probably the most misunderstood in the whole thing. At its core, the movement is not only about censorship. People must given the freedom to use almost any kind of language and words that they want to. However, the most crucial question is what kind of language they should use. The Political correctness movement works well within the open platform of ideas, as enlightened, tolerant people shoot down politically incorrect speech because of its detrimental effects. We should be able to identify the kind of language and words that can be subtly or openly offend and fight their usage. We should also be in a position to use language in an effective, and non-offensive way." The two words ‘politically correct’ and ‘political correctness’ found their way into the language through American feminists and some left-wing movements around the year 1970. The use of politically correct language then became widespread to other parts of the industrialized countries. According to “the terms had previously been in use with the meaning but in line with prevailing political thought or policy. “tThe use of ‘political correctness' as defined by the liberal left is greatly opposed by those that hold other political views. Some perceive the term ‘politically correct' as being pejorative because it depicts a political stance that they don't regard as ‘right'. There are strong beliefs from both sides. There are many examples of some attempts to change the language that are entirely misguided. For example, the attempt by some people in the Britain to discourage the use of the word ‘nitty-gritty', which was thought to be disparaging to the black people in the UK. In addition, there are many examples of gender-biased words and terms, e.g. chairman used when the person leading the meeting is woman, that are linguistically incorrect (although some would dispute that too).” The extreme ends of views on this issue is seen in the story that radical feminists in United Kingdom called on the government of the day to rename Manchester as Personchester! The whole thing is a myth, and the people that do champion for the use of PC language see it as an example of the right-wing press trying to discredit their ideas by spreading a lie. According to the theory of Political Correctness, "using a neutral language is based on the fact that language represents thought, and can even control thought at times", (Anon 1997). Besides, looking at the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis as stated by Luckhurst (2004) , “a language's grammatical sections determines the speaker's ideas and behaviour. however, some moderate conceptions of the association between language and thought can help a "reasonable deduction" of "cultural via linguistic changes". some cognitive psychology and cognitive linguistics literature suggests that the choice of words have considerable "framing effects" on perceptions or even attitudes of the speaker and their listeners. The most relevant question is whether sexist terms or words promote sexism or not, i.e. sexist thoughts and behaviour.” Critics of this ideology claim that political correctness poses a danger to the freedom of speech because of limiting what is understood as acceptable public discourse. Others argue that politically correct words are just but unnecessary terms. According to Luckhurst (2004) “some opponents of political correctness suggest that it biases some words, behaviour or attitudes because of the instrumentation of public disesteem. In addition, others argue that it is a kind of coercion that is based on the belief that in a political scenario, power means dominion by some individuals over others, or the human control of others; by this argument, it involves the use of force or compulsion.” Such kind of evidence depicts that correctness is subjective, and corresponds government or special interest group views and ideas.” In conclusion, Contrary to the argument of those who champion for politically correct language, the language does not decrease or eliminate offensive behavior. It does not promote conscious thinking at all regarding individual merits. It has caused the opposite as some people argue. According to Luckhurst, ". One of the major unfortunate impact of the efforts for political correctness is that it inspires people to construct grievances and offense in unnecessary circumstances, even where the speaker has not portrayed bad intentions. The enemy to political correctness is not the school bully, but the very studiosliterate people who understand the very meaning of words and wants to use them correctly." In conclusion, the English language has considerably developed and evolved. References Anon, 1997. Tampering with truth for sake of political correctness. (news). The Cincinnati Post. Luckhurst, T, 2004. Has Political Correctness Finally Killed Free Speech? Daily Mail. Nungak, Z, 2005. A survey of today's new political correctness. (strictly speaking). Wind Speaker. Anon, 2008. Media warfare; the Americanization of language. (reprint, 2005).(Brief article)(Book review). Reference &Amp; Research Book News. Anon, 2010. Keep Americanisms out of English Say no to the GET-GO. (Features). The Mail On Sunday (London, England). Waters, J, 2004. Whither English? Language Shifts with Cultural Changes. The Washington Times. Yemma, GS, 1996. The Americanization of the world. The Boston Globe. Anon, 2007. U.S.: language experts add new words to English dictionaries. Interpress Service. Retrieved from https://driverwebdesign.com.au/blog/how-technology-has-changed-our-language on 16/8/2015. Read More